AIDY Boothroyd admitted that Coventry City were “the architects of our own downfall” after a bitterly disappointing 2-0 defeat at Cardiff yesterday.

But the Sky Blues boss expects an instant response when they face Championship leaders Queens Park Rangers at the Ricoh Arena tomorrow.

And he promised: “We’ve created a little bit of momentum here and that’s come through a lot of hard work.

“If anybody thinks we are a team that just stops at Christmas, as perhaps might have happened in the past, that’s not going to happen because I will be on them and they will be on each other.

“There’s no time for sulking – we’ve got to get on with it.”

Keiren Westwood pulled off a string of saves to keep Coventry in contention despite a woeful first-half performance.

The introduction of Clive Platt and Freddy Eastwood to create an attacking 4-3-3 formation almost secured an equaliser – Lucas Jutkiewicz’s effort disallowed for offside and Eastwood firing into the side netting from close range – but Cardiff wrapped it up seven minutes from time when the inspirational Craig Bellamy grabbed his fourth goal of the season.

“They rocked for a while but we couldn’t take advantage of that period,” said Boothroyd.

“We came here believing we could get a result but we didn’t act like we believed it and that’s the second time against them this season that the tactics have gone out of the window because we weren’t up to speed from the off.

“We know that if we start fast and score first we’re a very difficult team to beat but we didn’t do that – we never looked like scoring in the first half.

“We had a go in the second half because I’ll always do that and if Lukas’s goal had been allowed or Freddy had scored from close in it might have been different.

"But it’s no good talking about ifs, buts and maybes; it was too little, too late and we got exactly what we deserved.

“If you’re going to lose at least you go down fighting and we didn’t do that for two-thirds of the game which I find very annoying.

“We relied on Keiren to keep us in the game – we were all waiting for somebody to do something and that’s no good.

"Cardiff are a good side but we made it very easy for them; we needed to be aggressive and assertive and we just didn’t do that.

“We weren’t all we can be as individuals, as units and definitely not as a team. That’s got to change and, take it from me, it will change against QPR.”